Portsmouth unveils parkportsmouth.com website

PORTSMOUTH — Residents and visitors alike now have access to the big picture on parking in Portsmouth through a new parkportsmouth.com website unveiled Thursday.

The website, based on Google maps, highlights a wide range of parking resources from handicap spaces, bicycle racks and free 72-hour parking to valet locations, the downtown business parking validation program and the city’s new time limits and rates which go into effect Jan. 3.

“The new website is a continued effort and implementation of the city council’s goal to keep our residents and visitors informed about parking options in the city,” said Portsmouth City Manager John Bohenko.

“As parking gets tighter in the downtown it’s more important than ever to give people alternatives to what they might be used to,” said Tom Cocchiaro, parking operations supervisor.

“This new website lays out all the city’s parking resources in an easy-to-navigate, interactive format with detail right down to how many spaces are in a given area — including the time limits and rates.

To make it easier for visitors to identify pricing and time limits, the city’s parking division has broken down metered parking into four zones, A through D. Meters in those zones will be prominently marked with color-coded stickers to alert drivers to the various rates and time limits. Zone A meters, marked with red stickers, are located in the high occupancy areas of the downtown and represent spaces with a rate of $1.50 per hour and three-hour limit; Zone B meters will be tagged with blue stickers and represent spaces with a rate of $1 per hour and three-hour time limit; Zone C meters will carry green stickers and represent spaces with a rate of $1 per hour and four-hour time limit; Zone D meters that carry red stickers represent spaces with a rate of $1.50 per hour and 15-minute time limit; and Zone D meters that display black stickers represent spaces with a rate of $1 per hour and 15-minute time limit. The zone designations and color codes carry through to the parkportsmouth.com website where it’s easy to see the breakdown of the various zones, time limits and rates graphically represented.

Other features of the website include a Twitter space where downtown visitors can find updates on parking garage availability status and snow ban announcements, information on COAST bus and trolley schedules, a local events calendar and other information.

For more details, or to check out the site, visit www.parkportsmouth.com.